1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to aircraft and, in particular, to a method and apparatus for providing access to an aircraft. Still more particularly, the present disclosure provides a method and apparatus for providing access to an aircraft using a door.
2. Background
An aircraft door may provide access to an interior of an aircraft. A door for an aircraft may typically have an outer skin that may conform to the surrounding outside mold line of the body of the aircraft. The outer surface of the aircraft door may form a substantially uninterrupted surface during flight which may not produce additional drag while sealing the door opening of the fuselage of the aircraft.
In some cases, an aircraft door may be opened during flight for various operations. These operations may include, for example, without limitation, deploying landing gear, deploying weapons, opening auxiliary air intakes, deploying cargo, and/or other suitable operations. These types of operations may increase the load on the door. As a result, hinges and/or other mounting components for the door may be required to withstand these types of operating loads. Additionally, currently used doors may open outward in a manner that may increase the drag on the aircraft.
Current door systems that may be used during flight may employ goose-neck hinged doors that may rotate outward into the airstream. These types of doors may include, for example, without limitation, weapons bay doors, landing gear doors, and/or some other suitable types of doors. These types of designs may employ spoilers to provide acoustic reduction and improved flow in the interior of the aircraft. Further, some door designs may include a bi-fold door and clam-shell door assembly.
These currently used door systems may be subjected to high loading, flutter, fatigue, increased drag, and shock generation during supersonic weapons release because they may extend outside of the mold line of the vehicle body. Further, these types of aircraft doors also may have complex heavy hinges. These complex hinges may experience high amounts of stress and wear on aerodynamic edge seals.
By opening hinged doors outside of the outer mold line and into the airstream during flight, the radar cross-section of the vehicle may increase as well as acoustic levels within at least the bay of the aircraft. Also, with the complexity of these doors, the amount of maintenance needed for the doors may take the aircraft out of service for periods longer than desired. Additionally, the complexity and weight of the doors and hinges also may add to the weight of the aircraft, which may be undesirable.
Therefore, it would be advantageous to have a method and apparatus that takes into account one or more of the issues described above.